The field of the present disclosure relates to business services, specifically to change management in a corporate, business, or other work environment. A preferred embodiment of a system disclosed relates to tools and aids to facilitate management of business facilities and workers during relocation, construction, remodeling, or other changes in a physical workspace. Another preferred embodiment of the system disclosed relates to managing a mobile workforce.
Relocating a business entity, whether it be moving to a new facility or reconfiguring the physical environment within a current facility, is a disruption that can threaten business on multiple fronts. Statistics indicate that internal employees assigned responsibility for office moves experience a high failure and burnout rate, and frequently are demoted or fired as a direct result of primary participation in such a change management project. Businesses often fail to adjust to a new space without interrupting operational continuity, losing human capital, or losing revenue. Efficient management of a relocation project is an important element, although not the only one, influencing these outcomes.
Many products are currently available to assist with project management of corporate moves: scheduling products, project management tools (e.g., Gantt chart software), and move management tools that are typically part of a large facility management software program. Relocation assistance products tend to be scheduling based or project management based, often utilizing proprietary web-based software to schedule move activities, map re-organization of human resources, and the like. However, existing tools are not comprehensive, and office relocations continue to pose significant financial risk.
Meanwhile, current trends in the workforce indicate that traditional physical workspaces occupied by employees or contractors for an extended period of time are becoming obsolete. Workers are increasingly mobile, often sharing space and facilities on an ad hoc basis, and businesses are increasingly becoming virtual distributed entities without walls. For instance, more and more professionals are working out of the office, only occasionally visiting a home office for face-to-face meetings with colleagues. They may work from home, at a client office, from a local café, or anywhere that a network connection is available, without maintaining a permanent office. Salespeople, consultants, and some employees who may only require access to an office for, say, 20% of their time, may use temporary office space with connectivity outlets and access to office equipment. Field contractors or consultants dispatched to a customer site for a few days to a few weeks or months may cause the workforce to be in a continuous state of flux. Yet, these mobile workers need the support of information technology, human resources, and other business services to be productive, and therefore must stay connected to their co-workers electronically, if not physically.
The present inventor recognizes that corporate culture management during a change event, and providing ongoing services to mobile workers are important, yet sometimes hidden, aspects of a mobile workforce. A healthy corporate culture must weather change and accommodate today's mobile workforce. Uprooting stationary workers from their permanent work spaces can be highly disruptive while many workers without permanent work spaces are constantly on the move. Though assistance tailored to specific needs of a business can be provided by a consultant to assist in integrating cultural elements with a move project, the present inventor recognizes that consultants tend to be cost-effective for large companies and same city businesses while such consulting resources may not be available to small, medium-sized, or remote businesses. Thus the present inventor has recognized that it may be particularly advantageous for these smaller or remote entities, or satellite offices of large companies, to perform the same functions in-house, utilizing proper tools for direction and planning.